GENDER DIVIDED - GLOBAL WOMEN'S PROGRESS - NEWSWEEK

GENDER DIVIDED - GLOBAL WOMEN'S PROGRESS - NEWSWEEK

By Naomi Wolf - September 18, 2011
Just over a decade into the 21st century, women's progress can be
seen-and celebrated-across a range of fields. They hold the highest
political offices from Thailand to Brazil, Costa Rica to Australia. A
woman holds the top spot at the International Monetary Fund; another won
the Nobel Prize in economics. Self-made billionaires in Beijing, tech
innovators in Silicon Valley, pioneering justices in Ghana-in these and
countless other areas, women are leaving their mark.

But hold the applause. In Saudi Arabia, women aren't allowed to drive.
In Pakistan, a thousand women die in honor killings every year. And in
Somalia, 95 percent of women are subjected to genital mutilation. In the
developed world, women lag behind men in pay and political power. The
poverty rate among women in the U.S. rose to 14.5 percent last year, the
highest in 17 years.
To measure the state of women's progress, Newsweek ranked 165 countries,
looking at five areas that affect women's lives: treatment under the
law, workforce participation, political power, and access to education
and health care. Poring over data from the United Nations and the World
Economic Forum, among others, and consulting with experts and academics,
we measured 28 factors to come up with our rankings.

Countries with the highest scores tend to be clustered in the West,
where gender discrimination is against the law, and equal rights are
constitutionally enshrined. But there were some surprises. Some
otherwise high-ranking countries had relatively low scores for political
representation and workplace clout. Canada ranked third overall but
26th in power, behind countries such as Cuba and Burundi. Does this
suggest that a woman in a nation's top office translates to better lives
for women in general? Not exactly. "Trying to quantify or measure the
impact of women in politics is hard because in very few countries have
there been enough women in politics to make a difference," says
Anne-Marie Goetz, peace and security adviser for U.N. Women.

Of course, no index can account for everything. Declaring that one
country is better than another in the way that it treats more than half
its citizens means relying on broad strokes and generalities. (The
experience of a domestic servant can hardly be compared with that of an
executive with an M.B.A., even if their citizenship is the same.) Some
things simply can't be measured. (Is child care better or worse when
provided by grandparents, or subsidized and mandated by government?) And
cross-cultural comparisons can't account for differences of opinion.
(Who's more oppressed: the girl in the miniskirt or the one in the
hijab?)

Certain conclusions are nonetheless clear. For one thing, our index
backs up a simple but profound statement made by Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton last week at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
summit, as she declared a tipping point for women. "When we liberate the
economic potential of women, we elevate the economic performance of
communities, nations, and the world," she said. "There is a stimulative
and ripple effect that kicks in when women have greater access to jobs
and the economic lives of our countries: Greater political stability.
Fewer military conflicts. More food. More educational opportunity for
children. By harnessing the economic potential of all women, we boost
opportunity for all people."

Indeed, the 20 countries that are best for women almost all have
democratically elected governments and GDPs above $200 billion.
Economies flourish when women are included, in no small part because
women reinvest some 90 percent of their income into communities and
family, compared with the less than 40 percent reinvested by men. The
countries that ranked last are poor, in some cases ripped apart by war,
and largely dependent on aid from the West. Afghanistan has one of the
highest maternal mortality rates in the world. In Chad, where per capita
income is just $164 a year and women need their husband's permission to
open bank accounts, just 20 percent of adult women can read. No wonder,
then, that global nonprofits are turning their attention to women and
girls. At this week's Clinton Global Initiative, more than 50 new
programs will be announced, including curbing sexual violence in Haiti
and efforts to end child marriage. (To see the event live, go to
thedailybeast.com.)
In our own research, the country that holds some of the most significant
lessons doesn't rank at the top or the bottom, although a decade ago,
it almost surely would have come close to last. In 2003, after decades
of civil war, Rwanda's transitional government passed legislation
requiring that a third of the seats in Parliament be held by women.
Today, its Parliament is more than 50 percent women, and girls are
enrolled in secondary school at the same rate as boys. Last year the
World Economic Forum ranked Rwanda first among East African nations in
economic innovation.

There are lessons here for the Middle East as it emerges from the Arab
Spring. With some states all but starting from scratch, tackling gender
inequality may rank low on the list of priorities. But it shouldn't.
"The vibrancy of these potential democracies will depend on the
participation of women," says Melanne Verveer, ambassador at large for
global women's issues at the U.S. State Department. Or in Goetz's words,
"Excluding women from postconflict recovery would be like trying to tie
your shoes with one hand."